Carrier Details

Comments:

Being an 800MHz CDMA carrier, Alltel usually has very solid coverge in their areas of operation. They have also partnered with other CDMA carriers such as Sprint PCS, Verizon Wireless, and U.S. Cellular, to provide no-charge digital roaming in most parts of the country on their relatively affordable "National Freedom" plans. The National Freedom plans cover most parts of the country, but if you need to use your phone outside of that area, you can pay more and get a "Total Freedom" plan that has no roaming charges anywhere in the United States.

I believe that Alltel is either in the process of, or at least considering upgrading their network to CDMA2000 1xRTT. However, no packet-based data services appear to be available at this time. I think that their current circuit-based pay-per-minute data services are still using 14.4kbps CDMA, but it is perhaps possible that 144kbps 1xRTT is used (and still billed per minute) on some of their newer phones.

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Cingular Wireless is in the process of converting their network from TDMA to GSM. Their 800MHz TDMA/AMPS areas typically have very solid coverage. However, in some areas in which they provide 800MHz TDMA service, instead of converting these systems to GSM800, they have built out GSM1900 overlays (such as the Detroit market). This often results in poor GSM coverage in those regions. I would imagine that they will eventually add GSM800 in these areas, but I do not know that for certain.

If you have a TDMA/AMPS phone and a Cingular plan, you can roam anywhere in the U.S. that cellular service is available, either for a fee or included in your minutes depending upon your plan. If you have a Cingular GSM phone and plan, you can only roam on other GSM carriers, and only in some areas Cingular is currently negotiating GSM roaming agreements for more areas.

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Verizon uses the 800MHz band in most areas in which they operate, but a few areas are 1900MHz. Verizon Wireless typically has very solid coverage in their 800MHz zones. I have never tried their service in a 1900MHz area. Verizon Wireless has also partnered with other CDMA carriers such as Sprint PCS, Alltel, and U.S. Cellular, to provide no-charge digital roaming in most parts of the country on their relatively affordable "America's Choice" plans. The America's Choice plans cover most parts of the country, but if you need to use your phone outside of that area, you can pay more and get a "National Singlerate" plan that has no roaming charges anywhere in the United States.

Recently, Verizon Wireless has started to sell a few CDMA-only phones that do not include AMPS support. If you have one of these phones, you will only be able to use it where CDMA service is available. There are relatively few areas in which this would be a problem, but you should ask about this before buying a Verizon phone.

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Nextel, via the use of the SMR Band, has very good coverage in the areas in which they operate. However, (akin to the situation with GSM) you cannot roam onto any non-iDEN networks in the United States with a Nextel phone, not even in order to call 911. Luckily, Nextel's coverage is quite extensive, but you should check their map before purchasing, because you will be absolutely out of luck if you leave their coverage area and need to place a call.

Nextel, of course, is known for their walkie-talkie like "two-way" service. They also have a wide variety of data plans including unlimited handset-based Internet (via packet data) for $10/month. Nextel also has the most affordable tethered (PC or Laptop use) data plans available at this time except for those offered by T-Mobile. Nextel's iDEN network is typically somewhat faster than GSM/GPRS for data transfers, but not as fast as the CDMA2000 1xRTT networks of Verizon and Sprint PCS.

T-Mobile:

Comments:

T-Mobile is (by my understanding) the oldest and arguably largest GSM carrier in the United States. They use only GSM1900. Their coverage is very lacking in some areas, but very good in others, so you might want to take advantage of their trial period if you are thinking about buying a T-Mobile phone and service. At this time, T-Mobile does not allow roaming on any other networks in the United States, so if you leave the T-Mobile coverage area and need to place a call, you will be out of luck. If there is another GSM carrier available, you will be able to place 911 calls, but if T-Mobile doesn't have GSM coverage in an area, then chances are that there is no GSM coverage there at all.

At this time, T-Mobile offers the most inexpensive Internet access plans of any carrier in the U.S., with unlimited on-handset access for $9.99/mo and unlimited tethered (Laptop/PC) access for $19.99/mo. The Internet access is provided using T-Mobile's GPRS network which has similar coverage to their GSM network. GPRS is usually a bit slower than iDEN, and considerably slower than CDMA2000 1xRTT.

Sprint PCS:

Comments:

Sprint PCS is a 1900MHz CDMA carrier which has really come a long way in the past couple of years. Their coverage used to be pretty marginal in some areas, but it seems to have improved a great deal. Their regular service plans work anywhere on the Sprint PCS network which has coverage in most major metropolitan areas and connecting highways, and is now beginning to cover a sizeable portion of less densely populated areas. There is a lot of debate over whether Sprint PCS or T-Mobile has better coverage. It is my opinion that Sprint PCS has noticeably better coverage than T-Mobile in general terms, but this is not true in all areas.

Sprint PCS has recently introduced a $5/month add-on that allows you to place and receive calls for no per-minute charge virtually anywhere in the country that there is an AMPS or CDMA system.

Sprint PCS has unlimited 144kbps 1xRTT on-handset data plans available as a $15/month plan add-on. These plans currently work for tethered (PC or Laptop) usage as well, but you are not supposed to use them for this, and doing so may be against the terms of service. More expensive PC/Laptop data plans are available for PCMCIA Data Card devices.

AT&T Wireless:

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AT&T Wireless is in the process of converting their TDMA networks to GSM. At the present time, the coverage maps on AT&T's website are rather ambiguous due to the GSM conversion. In general, though, AT&T mostly has coverage in major metropolitan areas, but they have more extensive coverage in their (relatively few) 800MHz license regions.

AT&T offers a variety of local-only and free-roaming plans on both their TDMA/AMPS and GSM networks. However, as with all GSM networks, if you are in an area with no GSM coverage, you will not be able to place or receive any calls (not even 911 calls), unless you happen to have one of the rare combination-GSM/TDMA phones that AT&T sells.

AT&T offers GPRS data plans for on-handset and tethered usage, but you must pay per kilobyte and the data plans are very expensive.

Airlink PCS:

Comments:

Airlink PCS is a small cell phone company based in Kalamazoo, Michigan. They are only licensed for the 6-county region surrounding Kalamazoo County, and they only cover a small portion of that. Their actual coverage even within the 6-county region is quite limited. Do not assume that you will have good Airlink coverage just because you are in the City of Kalamazoo.

On the plus side, Airlink does offer prepaid service plans that are much less expensive than those offered by the national providers. You can get prepaid minutes at $0.14/min or lower from Airlink. Minutes last for 60 days and include Voicemail, Caller ID, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, and unlimited SMS. Be careful with Airlink's "unlimited" plans. At the current time, they include unlimited outgoing minutes, but pay for incoming calls after a certain number of minutes.

You cannot use an Airlink PCS phone on any system except for Airlink's own, so if you leave their coverage area, you will not be able to place or receive a call.

Cricket Communications:

Comments:

Cricket is a lot like Airlink PCS, only better. They offer service in 25 different metropolitan areas in the United States. I believe that Cricket phones only work in the metro area where they are activated. However, Cricket uses a CDMA network and seems to have significantly better coverage than Airlink PCS in the Kalamazoo area.

Cricket's primary service plan is $32.99/mo for unlimited incoming and outgoing calls. For this reason, some people replace their landline home phones with Cricket phones. Long distance (not applicable to local and toll-free calls) is $0.08/minute. Cricket does not require a contract period, which makes them perfect for students or for temporary use. However, there are extra charges for services like Caller ID and Voicemail.

You can only use your Cricket phone in covered parts of your metro area, so if you travel outside of your city very often, Cricket is probably not the choice for you. However, Cricket phones will place 911 calls using some other carriers' CDMA networks (such as Sprint PCS), so 911 service may be available in some areas where regular Cricket service is not.